{"product_id":"tomato-black-opal","title":"Tomato Black Opal","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBlack Opal \u003c\/strong\u003eis a direct descendant of ‘Black Cherry’ with a rich, complex, sweet-yet-tangy flavour. It was trialled by the RHS back in 2017 and supposedly missed out on an AGM because it was just a little too large for a cherry tomato and a little too small for a salad one! That matters not. The flavour is fabulous, it’s prolific and can give you more than a hundred tomatoes per plant, with good general disease resistance and late blight tolerance too. This is now one of my ‘must grow’ choices. Indeterminate\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSow:\u003c\/strong\u003e we start about 6-8 weeks before our last frost is expected, sowing 5mm deep into modules. Keep under cover or on a warm windowsill. Transplant to pots when large enough to handle and grow on until ready to harden off and plant after frost danger has passed.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eGrow:\u003c\/strong\u003e plant in the greenhouse or in a sunny sheltered part of your garden. For the best flavour keep soil evenly damp and try not to over-water or overfeed. Black Opal is indeterminate, it will bloom, set new fruit and ripen fruit all at the same time until the first frosts.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eEnjoy:\u003c\/strong\u003e the deep, glossy brown-red and dark chocolate appearance of the fruits is the first hint that they are something special. Once I ate my first one I fell in love with their sweetness which isn’t cloying as they have a tang there too.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e💡 Did you know?\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTomato sweetness can be measured using the Brix scale. Fresh tomatoes are often somewhere around 3.5–5.5°Bx, while Black Opal can reach around 9°Bx. That helps explain why those little dark fruits taste so wonderfully sweet.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"MoreVeg Seeds","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":54037115044116,"sku":"TOMBOP","price":1.5,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0918\/3133\/7236\/files\/tomatoblackopal.jpg?v=1789738390","url":"https:\/\/moreveg.co.uk\/products\/tomato-black-opal","provider":"MoreVeg Seeds","version":"1.0","type":"link"}